Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan slammed reformed rock bands Soundgarden and Pavement, accusing them of only reforming so they can "make money".

The singer, whose band released their new studio album 'Oceania' in June, has said that he "condemned" anyone who didn't acknowledge that they were simply touring to make money and described the reunions of the Chris Cornell and Stephen Malkmus-fronted bands as "one more round at the till".

Speaking at a press conference to Philstar.com, Corgan said: "There are those bands that are essentially coming back only to make money – playing their old albums, and maybe somewhere in the back of their minds they're thinking there might be a future."

He continued: "I am not in that business, obviously. I condemn anybody who’s in that business but doesn’t admit he’s in that business. When Soundgarden came back and they just played their old songs, great. I was a fan of Soundgarden, but call it for what it is. They’re just out there to have one more round at the till; same with Pavement and these other bands."

Corgan added that he believed that the Smashing Pumpkins had a growing fanbase amongst younger people and that this was essential to their survival.

He added: "Without the young fans there is no future for Smashing Pumpkins. We can’t run an oldies business. Not only is it boring, it’s actually not a very good business."

Corgan also hit out at the changing landscape of music, describing it as one where people prefer fame to the music itself.

He said of this: "They have no respect for the people that came before them," he said. "They have no respect for the tradition of music, they have no respect for the blood and tears that have been spilled by great musicians all over the world – many of whom will never even know their name."

'Oceania' is the seventh of the Smashing Pumpkins career and was released on June 18.

from nme.com

Green Day have unveiled their new single 'Kill The DJ'. Click above to listen to the track.

The track is the second to be taken from the band's new album '¡Uno!' and follows the previous release of 'Oh Love', which emerged last month.

'¡Uno!' is the first of Green Day's new trilogy of new LPs '¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré!', which will be released in three stages. The first album '¡Uno!' comes out on September 24, with the second LP '¡Dos!' coming out on November 12 and '¡Tré!' on January 14, 2013.

from nme.com

Metallica, Blink-182 and Linkin Park are among the acts confirmed for this year's Soundwave Festival, the travelling festival that tours across Australia each February.

The festival, which was launched in 2004, now takes place on several dates at different cities across Australia. This year it begins in Brisbane on February 23 moving on to Sydney on February 24. It will then visit Melbourne on March 1, Adelaide on March 2 and finish up in Perth on March 4.

Metallica will headline the festival, with a supporting cast also confirmed to include Paramore, A Perfect Circle, The Offspring, Garbage, Tomahawk, Stone Sour, Kyuss Lives, Anthrax, Sum 41, Dragonforce, All Time Low, Flogging Molly, Ghost, Duff McKagan’s Loaded, Motion City Soundtrack and the Lawrence Arms,

As well as this, Kingdom Of Sorrow, Fozzy, Sleeping With Sirens, Cancer Bats, Madball, Vision of Disorder, Pierce the Veil, Periphery, Shai Halud, Of Mice & Men, Miss May I, Danko Jones, Woe Is Me, The Wonder Years, While She Sleeps, Such Gold, Lucero, Six Feet Under, Deaf Havana, Red Fang, Chunk! No Captain Chunk! and Memphis May Fire! will also play.

This year's event featured sets from the likes of System Of A Down, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, You Me At Six and Lostprophets.

from nme.com

Muse have revealed that they originally planned to record their new single 'Survival' as a duet with Elton John.

The Devon trio's new track is the official song of the 2012 Olympic Games and singer Matt Bellamy had previously said that it was firstly planned as a duet with an unnamed "good pianist".

However, in an interview with Los Angeles rock radio station KROQ, the singer has now let slip that it was actually Elton John and said that the 'Rocket Man' star was once employed as the musical director of the games before he fell out with the organisers.

Speaking about 'Survival', Bellamy said: "Believe it or not, Elton John gave us a call and wanted to write a song for the Olympics. At one time Elton John was actually the director of the music for the Olympics. He contacted us and we thought 'This is far out! We're going to do a song for the Olympics with Elton John?!'".

They continued: "So that's how the ball started rolling way back over a year ago. But then he pulled out of the Olympics. He didn't want to be involved anymore cause he fell out with the organisers so that left us with a half-baked idea. At that point we just let it go and carried on with making the album."

He went on: "And then the Olympics approached us again about the ending ceremony for us to play and that’s when we played them that song and they said they loved it and wanted to make it an official song of some kind."

from nme.com

Blur have launched their own interactive app for iPad and iPhone. It will be available to download for free via iTunes today, July 23. The software has been designed to serve as a companion for the band's upcoming 21-disc retrospective, Blur 21: the Box, which will be released on July 30.

The app is based on a timeline of Blur's history. It includes a plenum of exclusive content, from new interviews with Blur's members to unreleased and rare demos, remixes and live performances.

The app has a social networking aspect which includes the ability to share to Facebook and Twitter, and a leaderboard showing the most popular items.

Blur will hit London's Hyde Park on August 12 to help close out the Olympic games. New Order and the Specials are also on the bill.

from alternativeaddiction.com

OMEN Communications informs up that Henry Rollins has been cast in the new web and TV series Dark Prophet, with the show's pilot scheduled to begin shooting this summer in Los Angeles. They provided these details:
Dark Prophet is set to debut on-screen this fall. The plot follows Dai Shepherd, an extraordinarily gifted, yet rebellious music student with time-traveling abilities who discovers that government Intelligence agency, Black Box, has a catastrophic secret embedded in song patterns--Dai is the key to saving the world as we know it.

In addition to Rollins, the cast includes Josh Meyers ("That '70s Show"), Rick Gonzalez ("Reaper"), Bill A. Jones ("Glee"), and rising star, Chase Fein in the role of Dai Shepherd.

A sneak peak of the series was screened at the Writers Guild of America Writer/Director Short showcase July 18th, where show creator and director, Evette Vargas was on hand.

An industry panel of NBC/Universal TV development executives selected Dark Prophet as the first place winner at the annual NYU Tisch West Alumni Web Series Competition.

from antimusic.com

Liam Gallagher will perform a rendition of Oasis' classic 'Wonderwall' at the Olympics Games' closing ceremony, according to tabloid reports this morning (July 20).

The singer, along with his bandmates in Beady Eye, will perform a brand new arrangement of the 1995 track at the ceremony, which has been put together by regular composer David Arnold. They join The Who, Kaiser Chiefs, Take That, George Michael and Emeli Sande in being confirmed to play the event.

According to The Sun, the chance to perform 'Wonderwall' was originally offered to Noel Gallagher, but the 'High Flying Birds' man apparently declined the chance after giving it considerable thought.

A source told the tabloid about the performance: "A couple of months back the Olympic production team got in touch with Noel about playing his part in the closing ceremony. Along with his manager, they thought long and hard about it. It was a big temptation, with 650 million people expected to tune in on TV."

The source continued: "But he knocked it back in the end — he has been on a great tour and he doesn’t really need to do it. The organisers asked Liam if he was game and he said yes. The Who are on the same bill, so he was well up for it. The team wanted something quintessentially British — a real flag-waving, singalong moment to show the rest of the world what this country has produced. Oasis were exactly that and, whether it’s Noel or his brother Liam, they just wanted a bit of rock ’n’ roll in there."

The line-up for the closing ceremony, which will celebrate 50 years of British music, is being kept a closely guarded secret.

Paul McCartney announced that he will be performing at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which will take place on July 27 in east London. The ceremony is being staged by Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire director, Danny Boyle.

Coldplay are set to play the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. They will play the ceremony of September 9 at London's Olympic Stadium as part of an event named 'Festival Of Flame'.

from nme.com

The video is White's first collaboration with director Hype Williams, best known for his work with hip-hop artists like Missy Elliott and 2Pac. Williams's recent clips include Nicki Minaj's 'Stupid Hoe' and Kanye West's 'All Of The Lights'.

'Freedom At 21' is the third single from White's debut solo album 'Blunderbuss', which was released in April. The B-sides to the album's three singles, including White's cover of U2's 'Love Is Blindness', were made available digitally for the first time on Tuesday (July 10).

Last month (June 26), White performed songs from 'Blunderbuss' during a show at London's Brixton Academy. He will continue his 'Blunderbuss' tour in the US later this month, before returning to the UK for a one-off gig at Camden's Roundhouse as part of London's iTunes Festival on September 8.

from nme.com